Top ten quotes about famous cities around the world, this World Cities Day

Can you fall in love with a city like you do with another human being or your pet or even a material possession (which seems to be the order of the day and more so as we ‘evolve’)? That’s a question I have trouble finding an answer to.

On World Cities Day, read quotes about famous cities around the world. (PrettyDesigns.com )

In the words of William Wordsworth, “This city now doth, like a garment, wear the beauty of the morning; silent bare, ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie open unto the fields and to the sky; All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.”

Can you fall in love with a city like you do with another human being or your pet or even a material possession (which seems to be the order of the day and more so as we ‘evolve’)? That’s a question I have trouble finding an answer to. It all sounds so romantic. Finding the love and fuzz in the middle of pollution, construction, constant cacophony and the din of the excessive crowd around us, mostly all the time. Like William Shakespeare has famously opined, “What is the city but the people?”

For centuries now, man has travelled far and wide in search for work, food, greenbacks and probably, himself. Stories have evolved over time, most related with the adventures or the misses one faced, the people they met on the way, the lessons they learnt. These stories bring together a feeling of closeness and a sense of belonging too. Like the great writer Manto fell in love with Bombay (now Mumbai) and reminisced about it from across the border, evoking a sense of nostalgia in most of his readers who might feel the same about a city they love, even if they didn’t belong there forever. Bombay was Manto’s long-lasting love because “yeh sheher sawaal nahin karta”. The feeling stays alive in their hearts. In the words of Saadat Hasan Manto, “Ho sakta hai agar Bombay Pakistan chala jaye, toh uske peechhe peechhe main bhi chal padoon.”

On World Cities Day today, here are ten of the most-beautiful quotes about cities. Read on:

“Unknown in Paris, I was lost in the great city, but the feeling of living there alone, taking care of myself without any aid, did not at all depress me. If sometimes I felt lonesome, my usual state of mind was one of calm and great moral satisfaction.” - Marie Curie

“Paris is a place where, for me, just walking down a street that I’ve never been down before is like going to a movie or something. Just wandering the city is entertainment.” - Wes Anderson

“I get out of the taxi and it’s probably the only city which in reality looks better than on the postcards, New York.” - Milos Forman

“Tokyo would probably be the foreign city if I had to eat one city’s food for the rest of my life, every day. It would have to be Tokyo, and I think the majority of chefs you ask that question would answer the same way.” - Anthony Bourdain

“Rome is the city of echoes, the city of illusions, and the city of yearning.” - Giotto Di Bondone

“If I could live in one city and do every single thing I do there, I would choose Venice. You can’t turn your head without seeing something amazing.” - Nile Rodgers

“I been all around the world and I haven’t found a city that I’d rather be from or rather come back to than Los Angeles.” - Ice Cube

“Delhi means everything to me. This city has given me everything, and I love it.” - Virat Kohli

“I go to Paris, I go to London, I go to Rome, and I always say, ‘There’s no place like New York. It’s the most exciting city in the world now. That’s the way it is. That’s it.” - Robert Di Nero

“Clearly, then, the city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo.” - Desmond Morris

Jules Verne travelled the world in eighty days merely through the power of his imagination while, Dorothy and Toto got lost in a whole new world, but soon figured they weren’t in Kansas anymore, That, however, didn’t stop them from finding their way back to where they belonged and made some friends for life on the way. Taking this lesson forward, it’s never too late to start travelling, but the exploration of something new must never stop.